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We restored a huge old house in France. Part 7.

(the same room as in cover photo) The top floor of Rochebonne had clearly been intended for residential use because fireplaces had been installed.  Unlike the fireplaces on the first floor, which are marble, these ones are in cut stone.   However, that was all that had been done.  The huge space had not been […]

Posted 12 years ago

Book reviews.

Thank you so much to one and all for all your lovely words about my books. “The Man With Green Fingers” continues to be a bestseller, with “A Call from France” hot on its heels.   I do very much appreciate your comments – they go a long, long way in an extremely competitive world. […]

Posted 12 years ago

Shopping in France

When we first came to France in 1989 we were staggered at what poor stock there was in the supermarket. There were no cereals at all.  There was  no fresh milk.  There was no sliced bread.  There were just one or two brands of shampoo and a sad stock of tinned and frozen foods.  Anything […]

Posted 12 years ago

Oh all right I’ll show you my photos …. Namibia

This is a gemsbock, sometimes called an Oryx.  The horns are very good for making bows (as in bows and arrows).  I know because my brother-in-law, who is an archer,  asked us to bring some back from South Africa this year.  The photo only shows a a bit of gemsbok, of course, but you can […]

Posted 12 years ago

We restored a huge old house in France. Part 6.

Rochebonne means “good rock”.  The property is built on solid rock.  Gardening is a non-event.  We have lots of potted plants, flowers in tubs … and lots of small trees and shrubs whose roots struggle down through barely 6″ of soil, through the rocks, to more soil and water beneath.  Not a lot will grow. […]

Posted 12 years ago

We restored a huge old house in France. Part 5.

We’ve got people coming for dinner tonight so I haven’t got time to write anything much.  I have, however, dug out a few “before” photos of the front facade and the living room.   The cover photo shows the living room as work started. The living room now:   Things chop and change of course, […]

Posted 12 years ago

The French Bureaucratic system

Article written for an European magazine some twenty years ago.  I don’t think I’d write the same thing now but it is interesting – and perhaps important – to look back on the nightmare … The Bureaucratic Monster   If you ask Derek and Denise how they enjoyed living in France, they will tell you […]

Posted 12 years ago

We restored a huge old house in France. Part 4.

  The kitchen and the back-kitchen are about the same size – more-or-less the same as most people’s living rooms ie 30 sq metres.  There are red quarry tiles throughout, though in the back kitchen some were so perished that we were forced to replace them with modern ones. Outside the kitchen window was a […]

Posted 12 years ago

Oxfam – this sort of thing makes me so angry!

I don’t know if you can see it clearly ?   I tore it out of a newspaper.  It is an expensive ad by Oxfam (ads of this size in The Telegraph, the newspaper in question) cost around £5000/$7000) begging for you and me to send money in so that they can help the poor […]

Posted 12 years ago

We restored a huge old house in France. Part 3.

The living room at Rochebonne had been split in to four rooms at some point between the two World Wars.   It had been designed as two large rooms, one a dining area and the other a living area, but we know from old papers that the dining area was never finished, presumably for lack of […]

Posted 12 years ago

Books now available on Amazon:

A Call From France
French Sand
Kefani: An African Childhood
The Man With Green Fingers
Saying Nothing